In Her Own Words: Masters of Sex Star Annaleigh Ashford on Her First On-Screen Sex Scene

The Broadway actress tells us how she faked it until she made it

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Imagine this: You're a Tony-nominated actress for your recent stellar, hilarious work in the Broadway smash Kinky Boots. Prior to that, you originated the role of Margot in the Broadway hit Legally Blonde: The Musical; more than filled Glinda's fairy-godmother shoes in Wicked; and went over the moon in 2011's Off-Broadway revival of Rent. In theater, you're tops. But to become a household name as an actor, TV is where it's at. So you sign on for a story arc in the next big, buzzy cable show, Masters of Sex, Showtime's new dramedy about pioneering sex researchers Dr. William Masters (Michael Sheen) and Virginia Johnson (Lizzy Caplan). And suddenly you're dealt your very first sex scene. Such was the plight of Annaleigh Ashford. Even for a professional actress, doing the deed on camera comes with some performance anxiety. Here, she walks us through the nitty-gritty….

"In the scene, I play a whore who is so over men and so bored having sex that I have a really fake orgasm during sex with my john—the john, however, has a really sad orgasm and then collapses on me in tears—all while Dr. Masters observes in the name of research.

I've always felt that if a sex scene or nudity is necessary for the storytelling, then it can be appropriate. Obviously it depends on how it's shot, the type of project, who is working on it, etc. But if it's imperative to the narrative, and that narrative is good, then sex or a naked body isn't what anyone is going to walk away thinking about. Even so, some actors are more comfortable with it than others. I remember when I did Hair on Broadway—a show in which almost everybody has to get naked—we had cast members who were so free and unabashed when it came to the nudity, while others were really modest and discreet. It's just a personal thing. I'm somewhere in between: Skinny-dipping? While I'm never the first person to strip down, I generally feel like, Hey, why not! Showing all my stuff on-screen, Basic Instinct–style? I'm probably a little too prudish for that. And getting naked on-screen is a very different thing from getting naked onstage. Onstage you might be naked every night, but you're in a theater, where the audience is farther away from you, so that distance—and the lighting—allows things to feel a little more discreet. But being naked or doing a sex scene in television and film, there's a camera that's, ya know, this close. So not only does that allow the audience to see every nook and cranny, but on set, the crew and the director are up close and personal while filming. It's a little like being under a microscope. Plus, you realize with TV that it is something that is going to live in perpetuity rather than in a flash of a moment onstage, like in Hair. But if the story demands it, I want to explore it as an actress. And in Masters of Sex, ultimately I wanted to be true to my character. Nevertheless, when I actually got this script, I was daunted, to say the least. First things first: Bikram yoga for three weeks straight. Meanwhile, I researched prostitutes in the 1950s and studied Masters' and Johnson's early findings. I also had to watch When Harry Met Sally a couple of times. Just kidding! (But not really.)

All the sex scenes for the pilot were saved for the last day of shooting, so we were all in the same boat. I met the other actor in my scene, Steve Rosen, that morning, and it turned out we have a ton of mutual friends, which was both a relief and slightly mortifying. You're up against a lot in a sex scene, because there's nothing erotic about making it: The set is very clinical; it's about getting the shot and telling the story.

Unlike other actors filming scenes that day who had to be much more intimate and believable—let's just say there were a lot of tequila shots around set—I was lucky in that I was relatively clothed: I wore a vintage bra from the '50s, some garters, and a girdle, which I ended up loving, because I'm kind of obsessed with vintage clothing and period pieces. How could you not adore a sensible girdle? In this scene, my breasts weren't exposed—though you do see them later in the episode when I'm being examined in Dr. Masters' clinic—and I never had to show my ass, either. The audience will really only see me and my john going at it from the side, but we still had to take precautions to protect it, if you will. My costume designer and I went in this little side room in the hospital where we were filming in L.A.—which, by the way, is an old tuberculosis hospital that still has signs up on all the walls with instructions about how to avoid contracting it. Sexy, right? We cut up my underwear into pieces that we then taped to my body, to cover all my delicate bits. And let me tell you, while the protection is welcome, it doesn't make the Topstick feel any less odd in certain places.

The other lucky thing was that our scene was more comical than racy, which made it easier. The script called for me "on my haunches," so that wasn't too hard to figure out. Steve was behind me, simulating, you know, doggy-style. Then our director, John Madden, just told me, "Okay, Annaleigh. Five seconds of bored sex. Five seconds of not-so-bored sex, then fake your orgasm." In fact, Steve and I barely even touched beyond him using his hand to steady me while I moved back and forth, giving him some "oh, yeahs" and "that's rights," then faking my orgasm, which, in the episode, we learn helps the guy get off. Miraculously, Steve and I got the scene in one take, which I must say is pretty unheard-of. And I even ad-libbed a line after Steve's character orgasmed—"Good for you"—that John decided to keep. After it was over, Steve and I just shook hands, then he went home and I went home."